Many two component signal transduction systems (TCSTS) have been identified in bacteria (Stock, J. B. et al., (1989) Microbiol. Rev., 53, 450-490). These are involved in the bacterium's ability to monitor its surroundings and adapt to changes in its environment. Several of these bacterial TCSTS are involved in virulence and bacterial pathogenesis within the host. Response regulators are components of the TCSTS. These proteins are phosphorylated by histidine kinases and once phosphorylated effect the response, often through a DNA binding domain becoming activated. The response regulators are characterized by a conserved N-terminal domain of approximately 100 amino acids. The N-terminal domains of response regulators as well as retaining five functionally important residues, corresponding to the residues D12, D13, D57, T87, K109 in CheY (Matsumura, P. et al., (1984) J. Bacteriol. 160, 36-41), have conserved structural features (Volz, K. (1993) Biochemistry 32, 11741-11753). The 3-dimensional structures of CheY from Salmonella typhimurium (Stock, A. M. et al., (1989) Nature, 337, 745-749) and Escherichia coli (Volz, K. & Matsumura, P. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 15511-15519) and the N-terminal domain of nitrogen regulatory protein C from S. typhimurium (Volkman, B. F. et al., (1995) biochemistry, 34, 1413-1424), are available, as well as the secondary structure of SpoOF from Bacillus subtilis (Feher, V. A. et al., (1995) Protein Science, 4, 1801-1814). These structures have a (a/b).sub.5 fold. Several structural residues are conserved between different response regulator sequences, specifically hydrophobic residues within the b-sheet hydrophobic core and sites from the a-helices. This family of response regulators includes PhoP. PhoP is the response regulator of the Pho TCSTS which is involved in the regulation of alkaline phosphatase genes (Seki, T. et al., (1987) J. Bacteriol, 169, 2913-2916).
Histidine kinases are components of the TCSTS which autophosphorylate at a histidine residue. The phosphate group is then transferred to the cognate response regulator. The histidine kinases have five short conserved amino acid sequences (Stock, J. B. et al., Microbiol. Rev. 53, 450-490; Swanson, R. V. et al., (1994) TIBS, 19, 485-491). These are the histidine residue, which is phosphorylated, followed by a conserved asparagine residue after approximately 100 residues. After another 15 to 45 residues a DXGXG motif is found, followed by a FXXF motif after another 10-20 residues. Ten to twenty residues further on another glycine motif, GXG is found. The two glycine motifs are thought to be involved in nucleotide binding.
Among the processes regulated by TCSTS are production of virulence factors, motility, antibiotic resistance and cell replication. Inhibitors of TCSTS proteins would prevent the bacterium from establishing and maintaining infection of the host by preventing it from producing the necessary factors for pathogenesis and thereby have utility in anti-bacterial therapy.
Clearly, there is a need for factors that may be used to screen compounds for antibiotic activity and which may also be used to determine their roles in pathogenesis of infection, dysfunction and disease. There is a need, therefore, for identification and characterization of such factors which can play a role in preventing, ameliorating or correcting infections, dysfunctions or diseases.